THE JONES COUNTY
NUMBER 16 TRENTON, N. G, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1961 VOLUME XIIV
tii i Sh *$<’• ?i •
Threatened ky Chiselers an
w
are
I of tEe
progr***
: are, currently being givei
great, deal of publicity.
Any program charged <w _
mountainous1 ressponsibility of tak
ing wire of ffte needy aged, needy
disabled ,and needy children is sub
ject to abuses by tie clever, the un
scrupulous and the .greedy.
Any such program is certain to
have imperfections in its plan and
equally certain1'to have faults in its
administration. , 1 \ v ^ ■
JBut in its principle-. The extend
ing of a helping hand to those who
are in need and who. are not capable
of helping themselves, there is no
errbr.
There are four basic facets of
welfare aid: Aid to the aged, aid
to the disabled, aid to needy chili)
ren and aid to the blind.
Only one of these is now under
attack, and it has been almost con
stantly under attack since it began
— “ADC”, as it is abbreviated or
aid to dependent children, if' one
perfers the full title.'
redes.
what to jlo
if underserving
Severed from relief
Churclr prhtciples'and sociological
claptrap ( — in many instances of
about equal logic '—have made it
impossible to secure the passage of
publfc laws that would mak^ easier
the talcing of defenseless children
from undependable parents.
At' present it is necessary .for a
parent, or in some instances for
both parents to bq convicted in the
criminal' courts before children can
be.moved into a happier and less
damaging environment. ,
This is the single biggest imped
iment in bringing some'' financial
and moral decency into tliat abusive
area of "ADC’ where venal parents
use, both , the taxpayer and their
children at the same tips.
. Second Impediment
The second impediment in the
path of intelligent action in this
| program is the almost psychopathic
fear of the professional sociologist,
of state supported homes for chil
dren from the« kind of homes that
are jeopardizing the entire program.
The Dr. Ellen Winston-type has
to have smelling salts'when one ut
ters the ugly word, “Institution,”1 as
a substitute for a squalid Jbome, un
loving parents and almost certain
cultural blight.
Tod many Outsiders — particular
ly newspaper and magazine writers
— overlook the fact that the over
whelming majority of “ADC” feci
pients are hondrable people, who
use the money they get wisely and
who build better citizens to serve
the nation from having this helping
hand.
But that sorry minority is the
bad apple in the barrel, and it threj
tens to - destroy the entire good
work of the program.
Specific Laws
. In' the realm of specific laws, to
implement the improvement of the
welfare program f suggest two that
are based .upon serving two terms
as chairman of the Lenoir County
Board of Public Welfare.
1. That abandoment by 1 either
mother or father of their- minor
children- is legal grounds for, the
state to take custody of their chil
dren, insofar as the individual who
does the abandonment is concerned.
By this I do not mean that if one
parent deserts, the other patent au
tomatically is also subject to lose
his or her children. This would ap
ply to that one — mother or father
— who committed the act of des*
2. That giving birth to a second
illegitimate child — either in or out
of wedlock — would be grounds for
taking both children from a mother.
To clarify that business of illegiti-’
mate children “in or out of wed-,
lock;” many women who are mar
ried, are deserted by their husband,
which makes them eligible ,f o r
“ADC” help for ’their children, but
while their husband is gone, they
continue to have children just as
regularly.
An Auxiliary Need
Obviously if he laws permitting
children to be taken out of undesir
able , homes were liberalized the
state, or county would have'to make
some provision for the housing,
training and care of such children.
At this point the establishment of
,"homes” becomes a must, because
in spite of the fact that a large per
centage of such children would be
adopted into good homes, there
would always remain a percentage
who had remained in a bad.environ
mennt too long and whose adoption
would be less likely, or in some in
stances impossible.
Every organization that places
children for adoption in the United
States is years behind in supplying
the demand for children in good
homes; so a 'double service’ would
be provided by taking children out'
of homes where they are not want*'
ed and not cared for and putting
them into good homes, where people
desperately want them and where
, they will be well cared, for.
But just as important as the phy
sical care .such children would, be
getting in such a program would be
the tremendous saving to the tax
payers iri direct “ADC’ grants that
would be terminated, and in the
even greater ultimate saving that
could come from the children grow
ing up to become productive citi
zens rather tjian the parasites so
many of them almost automatically
become when they are reared in and
tutored in a parasite society.
The role of every welfare depart
ment in the nation include instances
of 2nd and 3rd generation illegiti
macy in the same household, and all
supported by money snatched from
the taxpayer.
Either/or ’
Either the so-called professionals
who administer the welfare pro
gram are going to promote some
such method to eliminate the rack
eteers from the welfare roles or the
aroused public is going to insist
upon damaging the entire fabric of
a most necessary program.
Special Committee Recommends
Following Federal-Aid Route in
'editorial ' ■ .
A Respectful Dissent
The Journal withes to respectfully file a dissent to the geCommenda*
tion of the special committee that was named to make a>study of the
badly dogged condition of Trent River.
The Journfl hat not made the detailed study it assumes the commit
tee made before it reached the conclusions included in the recommenda
tions handed up on Tuesday of this week to die County Commissioners.
But The Journal it acutely aware of two hard facts which lead it
• to'suggest that there is’not only a better way, but in the long run a far
. cheaper way to go about doing a job that alT agree needs to be ^one.
These two facta are: 1. That Trent River drains the overwhelming
majority of Jones County, and Z. That the clogged condition of Trent
River in the past six years has cost the property owners of the county
hundreds of thousands of dollars — possibly even millions of dollars.
So, our first divergence with t^e special Committee is that any plan
that accepts 'the probability of a 7-year time limit for completion is ex
travagantly wasteful, no. matter what percentage of the ultimate cost
may be paid by state and federal/agencies.
We insist that it would be far cheaper for the county — from general
reveuue sources, including ABC store profits — to immediately embark
upon the work. The federal agencies’says it will require five years to do
the "nlannine."
TI>» “planning” mem* so (unpin that an elementary grade student
could do it in an afternoon, since,ft consists of clearing the obstructions
that now impede the flow of Water, and removing such trees and other
debris that might be hurled into the river' again by hurricanes and flash
floods.
There is sotpe talk, under the 7'year plan of shortening the flow
of the river by cutting off tome of the countless “loops” it describes in
iU lazy flow to New Bern, put this is a secondary consideration. The im
mediate problem is supply undamming the existing'course of the river.
It is true that Trent River "does not drain all of Jones County and
that some citizens might objeet to a general tax levy, rather than tbs*
original drainange district approach. But it is just as true that every tax
payer in Jones County does not have children in the Jones County School
system, yet be has to pay his part of'the cost of the school system,
whether it directly benefit, him or not. This is the “general welfare”
awning of a single
com, but this is a
~ / .
' Tuesday a special committee ap
pointed in July to study the press
ing need for work on opening up
Trent River recommended to the
Jones County Board of Commis
sioners that at immediately enter
into agreements with state and fed
eral authorities for this work.
Originally the group had given
consideration to the setting up of a
drainage district, but subsequent
finds caused them to ask the board
to discard this first recommenda
tion and follow the other path.
The committee headed by John
M; Hargett, and including Nick No
ble, Ray F. Hill, W. W. Lowery
and Estel Taylor also recommend
ed that the county pay its part of
the cost of the project from the
profits of the Jones County ABC
store system, rather than levying a
special tax.
the committee also asked the
commissioners to call a “mass meet
ing" as soon as possible in the court
houe for the purpose of acquainting
the people of’ the counity with the
facts involved.
The report was accepted with the
thanks of the commissioner's but no
immediate, action was taken. It was
incorporated in'the minutes of the
meeting, however, and it appears
likely' that the recommendation will
be followed.
It. was not incorporated in the
recommendation but it was the un
destanding of the committee after
conferences with state and federal
officials that it would take some
thing in the order of jseven years
to do the work on a cooperating ba
sis.
Under a cooperative plan ' Jones
County would be required to’ ob
tain all easements and right o£
ways, save the federal government
from litigation that might
ited by private property
maintain the project ac
' ‘ specifications af
' make a cash
Highway Tragedy Causes Board
To Ask Intersection Study
ihe naming wreckage that claim
ed three lives last month on NC 41
west of Comfort led Jones County
Commissioner Fred Foscue Tuesday
to ask a situdy of all intersections
in Jones County, which request was
unanimously adopted by the board.
The wreck which led to the death
of three Pender County men result
ed from the driver of the truck they
were in swerving to miss a truck
that was entering NC 41 at an ex
tremely blind spot,
ft Tommy -driver? of
truck, as well as everyother driver
who enters NC 41 from the Hoff
man Town Road is forced to en
ter the heavily travelled major road
way wtihout being able to see
around the curve in either direction.
Foscues motion calls for not only
•a study of all intersections but the
installations of “island” where they
would contribute to the safety of
drivers.
Three Roads Given
Priority in Plans
Accepted by Board
Agreement between Highway
Commission officials and the Jones
County Board of Commissioners
has been reached ct the use of sec
ondary road funds allocate to Jones
County for the current fiscal year.
This agreement calls for the grad
ing, draining and stabilization of
three sections of roadway:
1. Plantation Road, 2. Smalltown
Road and 3.'Pine Street. It is plan
ned to do these three projects —
which does not include paying —
from the $57,600 allocated to Jones
County. When more funds are avail
able the roads will be paved,
Just Two Arrests
Jones County Sheriff Brown
Yates reports only two arrests in
the county during the past week:
John Coward Jr, of Kinston route
6 was accused of drunken driving
and George Dunn Jr. of 12-E Si
mon Bright Homes in Kinston was
charged with public drunkenness
and disorderly conduct.
First PTA Meeting
Thu first meeting of the Mays'
villa Elementary P. T, A. for the
1961-62 school year will he held
Monday night in the school audi
torium beginning at 7:36 p.m. Par*
ants are nifed to be present at this
vary important meeting: visitors will
|be cordially milimniiil ’
---rr*
ed-after the work is done,
Commissioners Veto
Putting Health Dept.
Under Retirement Plan
Tuesday the Jones County Board
of Conimissionners turned down a
request that employees in the coun
ty health department be put under
the State Retirement plan.
They said it was impossible to put
all other county employees under
the state plan, so it was felt unwise
to put workers in a particular de
partment under the retirement plan.
All Jones County employees are
already under the provisions of So
cial Security.
Maysville Firemen to
Ask Town Council for
Additional Equipment
Rudolph Pelletier presided over
the Monday night meeting of the
Maysville Fire Department in the
Community building.
Business before the Firemen in
cluded the naming of a committee
to come before the town board at
the next meeting to request that
they purchase an additional piece of
equipment for the department.
A committee was also named to
make plans for their Christmas par
ty and present them at the next
meeting.
The group took up a donation to
give the members of the Little Lea
gue Basball team a feed.
Following adjournment, Colin
Conway served a chicken stew sup
per.
They welcomed Otis Jones and
James Barbee of the Hopwell Com
munity as guests.
Fund , Raising Feast
To be Held Sept. 14th.
Hi* Trenton School Athletic De
partment will have a barbecue (Up
per in the Trenton School Gym the
14th of September at 7:09. There
will be one hour of country and
rock V roll singing and playing
after (upper. Profits will go tow
ard ' purchasing new athletic equip
ment.
Tax Depository
Tuesday the. Jones County Board
of ,Commissioners passed a resolu
tion authorizing Tax collector Ju
lian Waller to use the Branch Bank
ing &• Trust Company as official
depository for all tax collections
made by his office.